2.5 Gbps Ethernet going Mainstream? Realtek launching RTL8125 mobo chip
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Richard Nutman
2.5Gbps is very "meh". The jump from 100Mbit to 1Gbit was 10x increase. Should be looking at 5Gbps minimum as the next standard imo.
entr0cks
Problems making it affordable, cable length, shielding, protocol.
LTT (Linus Tech Tips) covered a 100Gb/s connection (non-Ethernet), where devices could use other computer's resources more directly. Which isn't "current tech".
LTT itself is using 10Gb/s a lot, normal protocol.
Ricepudding
I agree, Though for most people 1GB is still more than enough with most service providers still not even hitting those speeds, for me 1Gbps is enough and it could be for some time due to lack of competition between the service providers.
2.5, could be a nice alternative if the price is right, but i do agree we should make the next minimum standard 5Gbps, though i have no idea how long it would even take for internet service providers to reach this point, in the UK over a best part of half a decade i think the highest (non-business, so consumer) rate has gone from 200Mbps to 300 Mbps, Even if speeds over the next year jump 5x it still wouldn't be anywhere near the limit
Silva
Only in 2018 service providers in Portugal started to offer 1Gb/s.
Some are cost prohibitive, others are really affordable, but unfortunately not widely available.
I'm currently at 100D/10U and paying 27.99€. I'd kill to switch company and have 100D/100U for 29.9€, but the service ends about 500 meters from my house!
As a reference, 1000D/200U costs 40.9€ at the same company I can't subscribe to, not expensive at all!
2.5Gbps sounds like a joke, but it will be good to have for those with 1Gb internet.
As someone said before, next standard should be 5 or 10 Gbps.
schmidtbag
I know I'm a bit of an outlier here but uh... I don't really care about faster ethernet on mainstream boards, especially if it means keeping prices down. Could I take advantage of faster bandwidth? Sure, but whether I'm at work or at home, the speed isn't bad enough for me to really care. If I want all that extra speed, I'm willing to pay for a discrete NIC.
All that being said, any modern server or high-end workstation boards that come with anything slower than 4Gbps is a bit ridiculous, since they do actually warrant the need of all that bandwidth.
illrigger
None of this means a thing if there aren't cheap switches to go with it. There's no indication that there's anything under $500 that's more than a 2-port trunk attached to a standard 1gbe switch coming anytime soon.
wavetrex
Not "Meh" at all.
The point of having wired Ethernet in the house is to transfer stuff to/from main computer towards secondaries (NAS, FileServer PC, Mom's PC, Dad's Laptop, etc.)
(Beside having a stable connection for gaming and such)
Today, even a basic cheapo HDD is faster than 1gbps (~95 MB/s), meaning the network is now the bottleneck in all possible conditions.
I'm quite sure all NAS users will be extremely happy to upgrade their network cards to something faster than 1gbps once prices are acceptable.
p.s.
And don't say "Wifi 6" because as soon as you move past to one single wall, wireless speeds drop into the stone age. The theoretical max speeds only work with direct line of sight between the antennas, and on short distances... basically in the same room.
+ spectrum congestion. Yuck.
martin0641
There's a disturbing amount of the misinformation here.
The standard is known as mGIG, and the whole point is you can hook up regular ethernet cable and it will negotiate up to as fast as it can support on that cable, so when hardware is replaced the new performance is basically free.
If you want to 10 gigs you can go on eBay and buy a mellanox connector for 60 bucks, switches are more expensive but I've seen them below $500. eBay is great for used server hardware, and the wattage is listed clearly online so you can see how many lightbulbs each piece would equate to.
LTT is also running behind the curve hardware, as 200GE is already in the Dual port Connect-X 6.
They are decent on home hardware but the more they try to play in the enterprise space the more obvious it is that the talent levels there are prosumer at best.
Which totally makes sense, there's no way they'd be able to afford an Enterprise Architect on YouTube money year after year.
Shaxuul
...As long as ISPs are on board! Sure, 'ALL HAIL FASTER SPEEDS' -- for an arm and a leg, of course.
0blivious
I really only need one or two lanes of my 100 lane highway but now it becomes 250 lanes (probably a terrible simile). I dream of the day I could saturate just my 1gb connection with web traffic. But I live on a mountain just west of nowhere. It's still nice to see progress at the consumer level.
Corrupt^
To be fair, the only use I can see atm for small businesses or as a consumer is internal data traffic. Anyone working with a lot of big data (usually video if you're a regular consumer or small business) over his internal network can get some usage out of this.
sykozis
Some YouTubers make quite a large sum of money. Depends a lot on the number of subscribers to the channel and the number of views per video where ads are shown. Some YouTubers are reportedly making $1M USD and beyond.
Corrupt^
LinusTechTips has an entire crew, server room, etc. So yeah it does make sense for some.
But for solo, one man streamers, the base use to me just seems a NAS with lots of storage and a 2.5 Gbit connection for fast transfers.
illrigger
For solo one man streamers, trunking gig ports is better anyway - it prevents your streams from stepping on one another. You only need fast connections for single stream transfers, for everything else a trunk is better because it lowers latency. It's also a LOT cheaper, you can get 8-port smart switches for under $100 (you can get a Trend one on Newegg for under $50 right now) that will let you trunk multiple gig connections, and a lot of mid-range routers let you do it out of the box now too.
lord of shadows
I don't see many 2.5 gbps switches about, if you have to spend the money on 10 gig base-t switch, might as well spend the extra cash on the Aquantia AQC107 Ethernet card
Chris Moore
Why would you advocate an upgrade to 2.5 Gb/s Ethernet when it is so much less expensive to upgrade to 10 Gb and it is has been available for years. Proven hardware from major players like Intel, Chelsio, Mellanox, and Cisco (to name a few) and this hardware is known to work and be reliable and it is available for pennies on the dollar of buying new, untested gear. I picked up a used Aruba Networks switch from eBay for $125 that has 48 ports at 1Gb and 4 more at 10Gb and the network cards to connect to those 10Gb ports were only $17 each. The time in not now, the time was years ago, but the price has finally come down to a range where it is easily available to anyone that wants to put forth a little bit of effort.
The price for 10 gig base-t is still too high and will be so for as long as they can milk it, but SFP+ is available AND cheap now because enterprise data-centers have moved on to 100Gb/s and the market is flooded with the old 10Gb gear.
Chris Moore
You can easily and cheaply do 10Gb point to point with cheap hardware from eBay. Take a look at this video for details:
[youtube=MgNpI6VAAhI]
It is well documented and has been done for years now. That video was made in 2016, and I was rocking 10Gb at home last year. Don't waste your money on "new" when you can have faster for less cash.
Chris Moore
I just picked this one up on eBay for $125. It just uses SFP+ instead of "Base-T" (RJ-45) type connectors for the 10Gb ports:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Aruba-S2500-48T-4x10G-10-100-1000BASE-T-4x1000BASE-X-10GBASE-X-KMJ/232504836333
The network cards to go with it are only $16 ($24 with a cable):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/LOT-OF-2-MNPA19-XTR-MELLANOX-10GB-ETHERNET-NETWORK-INTERFACE-CARD/282092353923
https://www.ebay.com/itm/671798-001-666172-001-COMPATIBLE-10GB-ETHERNET-NETWORK-INTERFACE-CARD-W-CABLE/282042392246
